27 September 2012 7:37 PM

Where are all the cowardly celebrities when real courage is required?

Where are they now? Where are the countless celebrities who, not so long ago, were screaming in defence of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot? Doesn’t consistency now demand that they publicly defend those whose anti-Islamic film has caused such uproar across the Muslim world?

In response to the celebrity clamour in favour of Pussy Riot, I asked this simple question: ‘Why aren’t critics of Islam supported with similar zeal?’ Why, in other words, is there an international outcry when action is taken against those who desecrate a Christian cathedral, while not a murmur is heard when people have a go at Islam? The answer is clear: Fear tinged with political correctness and a large dollop of moral hypocrisy.

There is no moral courage in attacking Christianity. It is, after all, a religion of love, forgiveness and peace. True, there were moments in its history when those virtues gave way to cruelty and fanaticism. Today, however, Christianity has never been closer to its Founder’s message.

That is why I have nothing but admiration for those willing to challenge Islamic fanatics. For to defy those who would distort their religion in the name of Jihad or Holy War, is an act of true valour. And where there is genuine courage you rarely find what Sinead O’Connor calls ‘true artists’.

As it happens, I speak from bitter experience. While writing for another newspaper in 2004, I was asked by a group of moderate Muslims to shed light on the shadier side of Irish Islam. In a series of subsequent dispatches, I disclosed the fact that there were, indeed, Muslims with Irish passports waging Jihad in Iraq.

Not once did I criticise Islam or the Holy Prophet, nor would I. And yet, following publication of my first article, I received a menacing phone call from a leading Muslim accusing me of ‘working for the Jews’. A week later, I was escorted from the set of Ireland’s premier chat show by police, who had received information of a serious threat to my safety.

During the dark days that followed, few people came to my defence. Those who did, such as seasoned Irish journalists Eoghan Harris, Jim Cusack and Kevin Myers, had previously fought their own lonely battles against fanaticism. The rest either stayed silent or cautioned me against going further.

Courage demands going for the tough target. It demands standing up to those, in any sphere of life, who threaten and intimidate. That includes people who invoke the Almighty, or who are driven by what Edmund Burke condemned as ‘armed doctrine’.

Still, it is one thing opposing religious fanaticism, and quite another to gratuitously insult the sacred elements of a person’s faith. While investigating Irish Islam, my aim was never to undermine or pour scorn on the sacred tenets of that religion. In fact, I can readily say that we in the West could learn much from the pious practices of ordinary Muslims.

That is why, even though I am sickened by the moral hypocrisy of those who would jump to support Pussy Riot, but run for cover when someone slights Islam, I cannot condone those in California whose film has inflamed Muslim sentiment. Let them mock the fanatics if they like, but by vulgarly depicting the Prophet they have offended all Muslims.

No doubt, the film’s makers and defenders will invoke ‘freedom of speech’. It is true that free speech ought to be sacrosanct in a democratic society. But ‘freedom of speech’ should never be used to debase those things which others regard as holy.

We should, in other words, be able to ask why certain Muslims resort to terror and intimidation without, at the same time, risking our personal safety. This is a legitimate question which needs to be answered if Muslims are to peacefully settle in the West. And it is one that can be asked without resorting to what most members of that faith would regard as blasphemy.

Put simply, respecting holy things is no threat to free speech. If anything, it is to use wisely the precious gift of liberty. It is to use it, not as a weapon to offend, but as a means to rationally dialogue and debate.

In so doing, the hope is that you will isolate the fanatics from the moderates. That, at least, has been my experience in relation to Islam. In fact, it very soon became obvious to Muslim moderates living in Ireland, that they had more in common with me than with many of their co-religionists.

The problem with Pussy Riot, and the makers of the anti-Islamic film, is that they don’t know where to draw the line. They think freedom of speech should smash all moral boundaries and reach right in to the core of religion. They think that defiling a sacred sanctuary and insulting the Prophet Mohammed are legitimate forms of protest.

In the case of Pussy Riot, that may win you the cheers of politically correct celebrities. In the case of the anti-Islamic filmmakers, it may earn you hero status among those who think that, concealed behind every burka, is a suicide bomber.

One thing it won’t do is win you the support of ordinary Christians and Muslims who might well have been your best allies in different circumstances.

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Mark Dooley

Dr Mark Dooley is an Irish philosopher, author and broadcaster. From 2003-2006, he wrote a controversial column on foreign affairs for the Sunday Independent. Since 2006, he has written for the Irish Daily Mail, where his popular 'Moral Matters' column appears weekly. He has held lectureships at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and at University College Dublin where he was John Henry Newman Scholar of Theology. His 8 books include a widely-acclaimed intellectual biography of English philosopher Roger Scruton, and a robust defence of traditional Catholicism in 'Why Be a Catholic?'